New Haven Independent

posted by: lance on March 4, 2010  9:00am

How’s the hope and change working out for you?

posted by: Just isn't worth it??? on March 4, 2010  9:17am

The mayor stated that the savings isn’t worth laying off govt. workers after stating that the increase in the budget is attributable to rising workers comp, pension and health cost…  Well let’s see. 

Even if you have to pay two thirds of salary owing to unemployment benefits, that still cut’s a third from the budget.  You would immediately reduce health insurance, pension and workers comp obligations for city (which you report is the area of concern). 

With your commitment to spreading the pain, people may become fearful of losing their jobs in this economy (like everyone else) and start to become more efficient with their time and effective in their positions.  You immediately eliminate the need to hire a “revenue & innovation project coordinator” to streamline government (more cost savings in the budget).

Is this not worth it Mr. Mayor to alleviate the burden on your constituents who are making even harder personal sacrifices?

posted by: wakeup on March 4, 2010  9:17am

What about eliminating all of your consultants and advisers.  Also stop giving work to retired staff that are double dipping.  You will not be required to pay unemployment for these individuals.  Oh ya don’t forget your staffs raises you pushed through last year.

posted by: robn on March 4, 2010  9:33am

All based upon a bull$#!^ bubble reval.

Its ludicrous and unacceptable for property taxes to rise 10-20 percent a year for 5 years in a row.

posted by: eddie on March 4, 2010  9:38am

“He aims to hire a new ‘revenue & innovation project coordinator’ to help top managers find ways to streamline government now and in the long term.”

Isn’t that what the mayor is supposed to do? It seems like all this will accomplish is to add yet another name to the bloated city payroll.

posted by: Seriously? on March 4, 2010  9:40am

Interesting how DeStefano proposes hiring four additional staff members only months after he laid off people indiscriminately. Ironic, isn’t it? I suggest the city cover the new salaries by eliminating the office of the Chief of Staff. Since he expects the city employees to do more with less, why not take his own suggestion?

Love the sweater, John, but you’re no Dan Rather!

posted by: Threefifths on March 4, 2010  10:05am

Wake up people it is to late. The King has spoken. In fact Here is the real King John.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlUPlVzEJ8I&feature=related

posted by: Jeffrey Kerekes on March 4, 2010  10:28am

The citizens need to engage in this process.  The Finance Committee Hearings will begin shortly.  We need a list of ideas from the citizens, employees, everyone, on how to a better job in New Haven.  The problem we are facing is not just due to the global economic problems, although it certainly made things worse.  We have been on an unsustainable course financially for some time. 

What are your ideas for saving money or generating new money?  Lets start a city-wide brainstorm.  I will post all the ideas on the [url=http://www.nhcan.org]http://www.nhcan.org[/url] website.  In a brainstorm, no idea is a bad one.  Lets get a list of all the different ideas and see if we can make it add up to something serious.

Send your ideas to tips@nhcan.org

posted by: Bruce on March 4, 2010  10:34am

“Those choices would retard the attractiveness of our city,”

So will high taxes.  People will react by moving out of the city.  Lower population means less tax revenue.  This is a downward spiral.

You don’t have the money, Mr. Destefano.  Please don’t take it from us.  Cut cut cut cut.  All the summer festivals, anything for the airport, slice half the jobs in city hall.  Cut some firemen and teachers if you have to.  Just don’t spend what you don’t have.  This is our money and we are having a hard time, too.  Don’t make it harder on us.

Anyone want to buy a house?

posted by: john on March 4, 2010  10:39am

i want to know how this fits in with the reval hike “phase-in”; is this increase in addition to that, and (if so) how much? can anyone clarify?

on another point, i agree with robn; this bubble reval was a joke; we had just bought our house when it happened and were new enough to homeowning not to know to that we could contest it (even though the property had just been appraised at time of same for much lower!) so now we’re being taxed at a value that our house would never get on the market. nice for the city, sucks for us. (at least he got *that* right.)

i say these increases have to stop. and it may be that we also need to take on hartford to allow the cities to have a greater share of municipal aid. but that doesn’t mean that we should just roll over and take this, either.

posted by: asdf on March 4, 2010  10:43am

lance—
The recession was brought on by a Republican president, not Obama.

DeStefano is anything but change—he’s been here forever.

posted by: homeowner/taxpayer on March 4, 2010  10:59am

I need the money, too, John!  You don’t need to hire someone to tell you what cuts to make.  You don’t need 12 new firefighters.  And that’s just for starters.  Now I dare you to take a look at my household budget and try to find something my family doesn’t need . . .

posted by: steve on March 4, 2010  11:22am

What the increase in taxes represents is the costs to all of us for the Mayor to protect his political position and nothing to do with budgeting within the realm of reality.

When he is pushed to cut he will make it a ” I’ll cut the heart out of seniors or fixed income folks” he would never consider finding the shortfall as a first action by doing what we all have done over the past few years. Reduce waste and make hard decisions. He is crying crime and schools. Maybe I would trade less school administrative costs for more police. All know that downtown is like the “Wild West” and he looks the other way!!

Don’t forget that in the last 5 years your residential taxes have increased over to 60% and 140% over the last 10 years. Ever increase is compounded over the last. Yes we are Johnnie’s personal bank! Had Enough push back HARD!

Tell John DeStefano ” No More Tax Increases” and tell his supporters including the Board of Alderman that they need to have the guts to be for the people not for their political positioning for the Mayor’s favors!!

posted by: Moira on March 4, 2010  11:49am

Bruce has it right, as do most of the other posters on here. Cut away, Johnny. But don’t tax us anymore. What do we get in return for our taxes? Services are being eliminated or reduced left and right. As tax payers, we’re getting less and paying more for it. So, Johnny, how about starting with you and giving yourself a nice, big paycut? Too many bad choices have already “retard(ed) the attractiveness of our city”. Let’s not make it worse by taxing to death those of us who actually *want* to live here—and who contribute to a better New Haven.

posted by: anon on March 4, 2010  12:01pm

Cut the fire department.

A lot more homes will burn down, and a lot more lives will be lost to poverty, crime and decay, if the housing abandonment rate continues to increase at the rate it has been going the past few years.

posted by: david on March 4, 2010  12:19pm

it sucks even more if you live in a condo.  where i live, i pay my almost $4k property tax on 975sq.ft. - however my “complex” is responsible for our own garbage/recycling removal, sidewalks and snow removal through our common fees, which is over $300 per month.  i have no kids in the school system, the “street cleaning” is horrible at best, the roads SUCK, and what do condo dwellers get by paying our taxes…more annually increasing taxes.  i used to *like* new haven, but this is ridiculous…i struggle now.  and i’ll struggle to get out of this “city”...

posted by: Vinny G on March 4, 2010  12:21pm

The Mayor will not cut his consultants or others involved on hte Board of Education, IE School Construction Program.  The consultants / Construction Managers / Architects / Engineers get work in return they make contributins to his political campaign.  Same goes with all the bloat on the administrative side of the BOE.  Impeach John or let the City file for Bankruptcy.  Thats the only way the City will be able to really renegotiate union contracts fairly.

posted by: Morris Cove Mom on March 4, 2010  12:22pm

WOW!  He needs to be stopped.  If he raise my taxes at all, I will sell my house, and move 1,000 feet over to East Haven.  I will be forced to.  I currently pay the Mayor, I mean the City, $661.37 in property taxes EVERY MONTH!

And I don’t have the luxury of having a job that pays $100,00+ and being able to vote myself a pay raise whenever I want…like he does.

DeStefano needs a reality check.  He needs to cut spending everywhere, from the Educational Consultant AKA Vice Principal at Nathan Hale School, who is a retired former Principal, therefore drawing pension and earning a 5-6 figure salary, and for what?

Because the City and BOE aren’t required to hire people, but instead overpay them at exorbitant “consultant” rates?  That’s your tax increase right there.

Or the City Clerk, who has full-time pay for a part-time job, and is never there anyway.

Or certain Alderman, who don’t even really represent the interests of their neighborhood, but still draw a $2,000+ salary a year?

Come on!  If this City were a family, it would be bankrupt and out on the street.

We need more fiscal responsibility, and less excuses.  And less taxes, not more.

I wish I never sold my house in Stratford, to move up here, into New Haven, the big city, the city with a future.  what a joke.

posted by: Scot on March 4, 2010  12:39pm

I have generally supported the mayor and think he’s done a good job in the last 10 years.  However, this is terrible. Just like we all have had to tighten our belts in this economy, the city does as well. Find some more spending to put on hold until the economy picks up again.

“The city could opt not to give the school system a $3 million increase to support school change, he said. The government could choose not to hire new 35 police officers.. It could decide not to hire 12 new firefighters. ”

I support the investments in the schools and in police. But, are these increases over last year? Why not hire 15 new police officers rather than 35, that would still be an improvement from last year. And the $3 million to schools is an additional increase in spending from what level last year? The schools have seen a ton of investment the past 5-10 years which is great, but maybe now is the time to freeze the spending, at least temporarily if we can’t afford it. Maybe the $3m increase can go back in for the following year.

We absolutely need to say no to selling off the parking meter revenue!

posted by: Morris Cove Mom again on March 4, 2010  12:40pm

Maybe we should instill a toll for the new bridge, and put it on the old/current bridge.  Is it this new bridge tht is really sinking the city into it’s tremendous budget problems?  Or has the cost of the new Q not even been calculated into said budget yet?

I can’t stop thinking about these problems.  What do other college-filled cities do?  Who is a successful example that we can copy, New London?

posted by: Jeffrey Kerekes on March 4, 2010  1:04pm

Citywide Brainstorm

I started a spreadsheet of ideas for revenue and expenses.  I culled through all the posts in the past several days on the NHI as well as multiple emails that are already coming in.  Please take a look at this list and add your ideas. This is a brainstorm, so the rules are all ideas get listed whether they are wacky, politically incorrect, etc.. as long as they are not overtly offensive. Send your thoughts at tips@nhcan.org.

[url=“http://www.nhcan.org/docs/spreadsheets/citywidebrainstorm.xls
“]Citywide Brainstorm List[/url]

posted by: Unbelievable on March 4, 2010  1:06pm

So let me get this straight.
*Our Taxes are currently thru the roof.      *Insurance, Utilities and food are going higher and higher.
*Most residents have seen no increase or a decrease in income due to the forementioned issues.
*There are no jobs.
*People do not have money to SPEND.
SO:
TO SOLVE THE CITIES PROBLEMS, THEY WANT TO TAKE MORE SPENDING MONEY FROM THOSE WHO DONT HAVE IT TO BEGIN WITH.
Newsflash: This is why the economy is in the toilet to begin with. As long as people (i.e. US residents/US citizens) DO NOT have any money to spend, the economy will remain in the toilet. Once the PEOPLE have money to spend, the economy will get better. SIMPLE LOGIC.

posted by: Jeffrey Kerekes on March 4, 2010  1:10pm

Doesn’t look like my link worked.  Here is the link to the spreadsheet:

http://www.nhcan.org/docs/spreadsheets/citywidebrainstorm.xls

posted by: Jonathan Hopkins on March 4, 2010  1:40pm

“like improving the schools and fighting crime.”

Shoveling money into schools does not make them better.
Police are not a solution to the type of crime we have become familiar with in America’s cities.

Lowering taxes, providing incentives to middle class families, attracting suburban families, providing walkable communities, dense networks of shopping options that are supplemented by beautiful community, civic and public space is the only viable solution to severe crime, poor preforming schools, and general urban decline.

During prosperous times it is important to lower taxes before spending more. During hard times it is important to maintain taxes and spend less. The only time to raise taxes is during a static period when a public project of great benefit is being enacted to boost private economic development, quality of life and/or civic involvement.
There are extenuating circumstances, of course, but even that would only call for minuscule raises not 9%!

posted by: Bill Saunders on March 4, 2010  1:57pm

Aren’t State workers faced with unpaid furlough days to help balance the budget?

posted by: Alphonse Credenza on March 4, 2010  2:14pm

Cut municipal employee salaries.  Cut pensions.  Offload staff.  Do with less, much less.  The alternative is worse—higher taxes on the supposedly represented citizens of this city!

posted by: Jeffrey Kerekes on March 4, 2010  2:18pm

Here is the schedule of meetings and hearings on the budget:

March 9, Tuesday @ 6:00   Public Hearing on the Budget
March 22, Monday @ 7:00   Budget Workshop (Overview) Monthly Meeting
March 24, Wednesday @ 6:30 Budget Workshop #1
April 13, Tuesday @ 7:00 Budget Workshop #2
April 15, Thursday @ 6:00 Budget Workshop #3
April 20, Tuesday @ 6:00 Budget Workshop #4 Monthly Meeting
April 28, Wednesday @ 6:30 Public Hearing on the Budget Deliberations Workshop
May 5, Wednesday @ 7:00 Deliberations Workshop
May 12, Wednesday @7:00 Deliberations on the Budget Monthly Meeting
May 24, Monday Board of Aldermen Special Budget meeting

All meetings will be in the Aldermanic Chamber, City Hall, 165 Church Street New Haven, unless otherwise noted.

posted by: lance on March 4, 2010  2:33pm

still blaming bush, huh asdf?

posted by: William Kurtz on March 4, 2010  2:35pm

Speaking as someone contemplating a move into the city, this is a discouraging development.  With decreases in state aid, Mayor DeStefano is in a tough spot but Mr. Hopkins is right in that it’s time for some more radical thinking.  For one thing, it’s bizarre that car taxes are going down 11% while house and condo taxes are going up 9 and 15%, respectively.  The property tax structure should provide progressive incentives; you want people to live in the city and should probably be discouraging driving to the extent practical.

posted by: S on March 4, 2010  3:24pm

New Havener’s, you’ve got what you have voted for.

posted by: anon on March 4, 2010  3:40pm

Jonathan is absolutely correct. The only way to improve education, health and safety and attract jobs is to improve the overall urban environment (including accessibility to child care, health care, walkable neighborhoods, community meetings, parks, social events and transportation).

Unfortunately, it is easier to convince the public that simply putting more money into huge institutions such as police, schools and economic subsidies for companies will lead to better safety, education and jobs than it is to convince them that community cohesiveness, sidewalks, street trees, urban noise reduction, snow removal, bike lanes, nice bus stops, buses that actually come on time, attractive parks and night-time lighting will.

Until we understand the direct importance of problems like the trash piling up on the corner, speeding traffic crashing into homes, noisy highways with no sound barriers, needle-filled parks and burned out street lights, and the communities that must come together to solve them, our city will make no progress on issues such as sky-high dropout rates, poverty, crime and lack of voter participation. 

We’ll spend more and more money and get worse and worse results.

posted by: Jeffrey Kerekes on March 4, 2010  4:08pm

My webserver is having a major problem today so I created a google doc with the information I collected so far. Sorry about any problems accessing the information.  Here is the link:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=twwi6qn-xJPYMWCK8Ne5-VA&output=html

Please send your ideas for generating money or cutting expenses to tips@nhcn.org

posted by: Cityworker on March 4, 2010  5:20pm

Gosh I am screwed on all fronts. I live and own a home in New Haven and my taxes are going up. Now I am also asked to make more sacrifices in my work place. Don’t I have a right to worry also about how I am going to make ends meet? Why does everyone beat up on employees so much,don’t you believe we work for a living also? Sure there are some who are lazy, but so many of us work very hard and at times long hours. I know this comment is going to be used against all city employees with negative comments, and I am so very tired of all this. I am worn down, and don’t think I can stay much longer living in this city. If I keep getting beat up because I draw a paycheck from this city I might as well just draw a pay check,not live here, and not pay these kind of taxes that all of us are paying together. Why do you folks continue to push/bash us little guys instead of the mayor’s large staff, highly paid, department heads and others he is taking very good care of. And when he speaks of pensions I think people would finally look at pensions of the police and fire and what they retire with, not pick on the little guy. You are targeting all your anger toward all workers. That is so unfair.
I am a tax payer in this town. I am a hard worker for the city of New Haven and have given up in the past negotiated contracts and cut back to help out and now am wondering how much more you think I can withstand as you complain you can’t.
Please start looking at this fairly and look who got big raises not too long ago, it wasn’t the little guy many of us were layed off. It was the mayor’s people and he is planning to bring in/hire more. Doesn’t that say it all to everyone?

posted by: blue dog dem on March 4, 2010  5:24pm

The only manner in which to get out of this mess is for the City to declare bankruptcy and to change their health coverage.  The City is self-insured, meaning that they cover all of the costs rather than those costs being borne by a traditional carrier, such as Anthem.  This coverage needs to be reviewed and higher co-pays, co-insurance, etc. implemented.  Without knowing specifics, my estimate is that this should save 15% minimum off the top, but probably more.

More importantly, the City needs to declare bankruptcy so that it can open up every contract and make drastic changes to these contracts, starting with removing all of the consultants, without fear of legal action.  It doesn’t matter that most contracts are being bargained this year because the expiring contract will be the basis for the new, unless bankruptcy is declared.

The situation is only going to get worse as the economy will not recover until at least the middle of 2011 and we have nothing left to sell, property values have completely plummeted and taxes have risen another 25%.

Last, the city needs to bring in someone who has complete authority to negotiate all the savings and base their compensation on the amount of money saved, such as 5% “commission” for three years as some savings will not be evident initially.  If they have skin in the game, they will do a much better job at reducing waste as opposed to career politicians that only want to keep their jobs. 

In this economy, municipal workers should be happy to keep their jobs, and if they are not, then we can always hire their replacements from the almost 20% unemployed living here.  Most of the workers that I know do not live here in New Haven and so this will accomplish twofold:  bringing money to our tax base while reducing unemployment.

posted by: Claudia Herrera on March 4, 2010  5:50pm

The feelings of anger and frustration are obviously something that we all shared.

Work-less opportunities, bad economy and not solution offered.
(Besides higher our taxes to the sky)  Where is hope?

I’m concern because, seem that we relying a lot on the BOA judgment to represent and speak for us. My question is how many of the BOA actually has properties in New Haven as a Homeowner or having a business?  How many of them are really qualify to understand this kind of budgets.

I think is not ONLY about spending the money to improve education, health and safety to improve the overall urban environment.(which many of us seems don’t have a problem).

The real question is how much money needs to be spending and give affective results in that area is A LOT more than numbers is about “the deal”.

posted by: Threefifths on March 4, 2010  5:50pm

Tonight at 7:oo p.m. they will be a show on WBAI on how to pay for schools.Just click on listen live.

http://WWW.WBAI.ORG

posted by: Jeffrey Kerekes on March 4, 2010  6:01pm

Claudia Herrera:

If you are serious about knowing which Alders own property, you can find out fairly easily.

Here is the tax collector database: http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/TaxCollector/C2GTaxBilling.asp

Here is a list of current alders: http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/Aldermen/index.asp

posted by: eddie on March 4, 2010  6:31pm

“... seem that we relying a lot on the BOA judgment to represent and speak for us.”

*Facepalm*

Isn’t that kind of the point of a representative democracy?

posted by: Claudia Herrera on March 4, 2010  6:45pm

Jeffrey Kerekes

Thanks, and yes I’m serious about this information not for any other reason than I believe that if you are in same “boiling pot” your judgement will be more conscious of feeling the pressure to pay a mortgage than
pay my rent and “keep my political position” safe and fair.

I may be wrong but I think this should be and other way to look in the futures when we elect and vote for alders.

Cityworker.

I think many of us understand your frustration of being a little guy working for the city.

If you are a taxed payer in this City NOBODY is against YOU. I have co-workers that they take their paycheck and go back to their towns. their husbands worked for Yale and guess what

THEY DON’T LIKE NEW HAVE..But NEW HAVEN’S PAYCHECKS put food to their tables..

posted by: eddie on March 4, 2010  6:48pm

Cityworker: Assuming you’re not a troll, I’m certainly sympathetic to anyone whose job is at risk. However, even you admit that there is plenty of waste in City Hall. If this is so, the city’s responsibility is to its taxpayers: It must trim the fat. If you’re going to get angry at anyone, get angry at the mayor for hiring too many people and failing to exercise fiscal restraint.

By the way, I agree with you on the first places the city should look for cuts. I suspect you could let go of half of the vice principals in the school system without doing any damage. Same goes for a few other departments.

posted by: Claudia Herrera on March 4, 2010  6:49pm

Yes Eddie

My question is the ability and qualification of the representation of our democracy.

posted by: Not All Info on March 4, 2010  7:03pm

Jeffrey, you are not completely correct in your suggestion about aldermanic homeownership. I know of at least 2 alds who houses are in their spouses maiden names.

posted by: Vinny G on March 4, 2010  8:01pm

Vallejo is the City in California declared bankruptcy to renegotiate its union contracts. 

See the attached link below

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/11/BA6E10JVID.DTL

posted by: anniemouse on March 4, 2010  8:42pm

I understand why everyone is complaining about NH taxes but what I want to know why CT doesn’t have a county government structure here.  New Haven basically deals with all the services that a county would cover.  Most large metropolitan areas are counties and county taxes cover costs like education, affordable housing, the health department.  If no county government CT should pick up the costs as these things benefit suburbs too.  Your telling me the suburbanites don’t benifit from the health inspector going to Zinc?  Your telling me that the suburbs don’t benifit for NH having all the affordable housing (it means they don’t have too).  What gives?

posted by: 3144 Member on March 4, 2010  10:20pm

Cityworker has it right on all counts. Most of us here work hard to keep the city going. There are the connected few who are parasites. They are living off the fat of the city tax payer. If any citizen sees wrongdoing by city workers they should go to Rush Limbaugh. What we all need is a big expose of how city hall works.

posted by: Almost SOLD on March 4, 2010  10:22pm

Almost got the house sold to some out-of-town suckers. Then we’re off to the suburbs where a two-party system still exists and the taxes are half what we’re paying here. Great job, Johnny. Hear that sucking sound? That’s the disappearing middle class in your city. New Haven will just be a bad memory for me.

posted by: eddie on March 5, 2010  10:08am

Annie: You’ve hit the nail on the head, but understanding the problem in this case doesn’t get you any closer to solving it. In Connecticut, the 169 municipalities all operate as little city states, competing with each other and duplicating services to the detriment of the state. County government would be a huge improvement.

But ... to get to that point you’d have to convince local governments to relinquish control. Good luck with that—you’re talking about a state where the interests of a couple of property owners in East Haven held up for years improvements at Tweed New Haven Airport that would benefit the entire region.

Imagine telling the good people of Hamden or Branford that from now on, some of their taxes will subsidize services in New Haven. Common sense tells us it’s the right thing to do, and it’s a proven system that works well in many other parts of the country. But you’ll never get Hamden taxpayers to vote for it.

posted by: cedarhillresedent on March 5, 2010  10:56am

ok we can add to NHCAN’s city wide brainstorm list the paycheck for the person the mayor said he was going to hire “Innovation-Based Budgeting” to find the 8 mill that he plans on cutting because there are over 20 mill in saving in this brainstorm sheet!!

http://www.nhcan.org/archives/379

to add more send your info to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Also the mayor stated that he laid off people last go around…. I was reminded by someone last night that alot of those people are back on the payroll!!!! So, not so much on the number of people he said he laid off.

To all those that are on here reading and complaining… do something about it. Come to the workshops. Let them know enough is enough. And if your life does not afford you that at the least call your alder, weekly or email them telling them that they BETTER be your representative!!!  That is why you voted for them!!! And for anyone that is running in the future… this is the year that your worth will be decided!!!!

Contact info on Alderman
http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/aldermen/index.asp

Hell call all of them and email all of them!!!!

posted by: Jeffrey Kerekes on March 5, 2010  11:06am

Not All Info:

Oops.  You are right.  I think Sergio Rodriguez is one of those alders who has their home in his spouse’s name.  I am not sure which others may have his/her home in a spouse’s name. Good catch! Thanks for posting.

Please keep sending your ideas for savings/revenue to tips@nhcan.org.  We got over 100 suggestions so far.  The latest list can be found at http://www.nhcan.org

posted by: anon on March 5, 2010  11:31am

AlmostSOLD:
Have fun moving to the slums of the future.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/03/the-next-slum/6653/

posted by: City Hall Watch on March 5, 2010  11:48am

The headline on this story should be: MAYOR TO TAXPAYER: STICK ‘EM UP. WE WANT YOUR MONEY! Unfortunately, for way too long, the mayor has dictated this budget and the BOA has willingly gone along, some out of ignorance, some out of tiredness, some out of ambition and some out of lack of votes.
This cannot be allowed to go on any more. The mayor’s been in control of this process for the last 16 or so years. We are heavily in debt, our revenue sources are drying up; our unemployment is skyrocketing and our overall cost of a wide ranging city government are out of control.

We are at a fiscal cross roads. If this budget is enacted as written, without significant changes, it will set the course for the next five years at least, if not longer. During that time, we will continue to see eroding state support; and we will have built structural revenue problems into our budget that will haunt us for the next 20 years.

No rubber stamps this year. We can’t afford it. Call your alder, come to the meetings. Particpate in NH CAN’s citywide brainstorm. Get involved.

posted by: What I can find about Alders whom own property on March 5, 2010  12:23pm

Hi Jeff -

That link doesn’t help too much, but it looks like most Alders own their homes, with only the following not - Jones, Calder, Elicker, Joe Rodriguez, Castro, Paca.  A few alders have their homes under their husbands or wives names (Evans, Lemar, Sergio Rodriquez, Thorpe) most alders also own cars.

posted by: Mark on March 5, 2010  12:57pm

This is a great time for someone who is thinking about running for Mayor in 1.5 to get there name out!!

We are all sick & tired but lack any change.

We need major layoffs (including consultants)Spending freeze across the board. 

The mayor keeps trying to buffalo everyone. On the new school agenda and added police/fire. 

Crime is down and I have not heard of any issues with the lack of firemen. Stop spending!!!

Stop the abuse City wide…

What He does not understand is the middle class taxpayers can’t afford him!!!

posted by: Just Thinking on March 5, 2010  1:48pm

Jeff, Thanks for the link to the site where you can look up Alders addresses and property. I looked up my Alder and yours, Mike Smart. Not only do I not see his fancy(50k +)SUV registered here in New Haven, I another properties he owns include 46 William Street. That address sounded familiar from a previous NHI article. Why…it is the home of one Carmen Rodriguez. So to recap, Chris Randall and Carmen (Co-Chairs for Ward 8) both live in houses owned by Mike Smart. That is great. Draw your own conclusions….

posted by: Fed up with empty promises on March 5, 2010  3:36pm

Mayor,what happened to your plan on taxing all of the New Haven Residents that have their cars registered out of state? As a New Haven resident who pays taxes; unless you start taxing these people we will continue to see increased taxes. As I drive around the city, especially in Fair Haven, we have lots of out state registered cars with the owners living here. We need to get someone elected, that’s going to start taxing them so we don’t have to see increases because of them.

posted by: Claudia Herrera on March 5, 2010  3:45pm

City-watch

Truth, But that’s the point I think WE SHOULD BE pressure to our elders NOW. Before they give their votes….. Remember, in the past have been cases of elders being “late” paying their taxes or other they “forgot” or “too busy”..

“the BOA has willingly gone along, some out of ignorance, some out of tiredness, some out of ambition and some out of lack of votes”.

What I can find about Alders:

That’s mean 6 WARDS!! in the city has elders that they can take easy with taxes..No my pocket no my real problem. Unfortunately some tenants say “I paid my rent done.” 
:-(

posted by: Easy math on March 5, 2010  3:59pm

In addition to a lot of the good ideas here, I have a simple solution for the city to save a lot more money, based on what the company I work for did: a graduated set of pay cuts, the biggest at the top, down to small ones at the bottom, so that everyone shares the burden.
A rough example, just to demonstrate, which would need to be smoothed out:
Salary Range     Pay Cut Percentage
200,000+        20% ($250,000 -> $200,000)
150,000-199,999   15% ($150,000 -> $127,500)
100,000-149,999   10% ($100,000 -> $90,000)
75,000 -99,999     7.5% ($75,000 -> $69,375)
50,000 -74,999     5%  ($50,000 -> $45,000)
etc.
Ask the mayor’s consultants how much this would save the city, i.e. us taxpayers.

posted by: Bingo man on March 5, 2010  4:44pm

Raising property taxes again is not only unfair, but foolish in the long run since it will further undermine the very small middle class tax base of the city.  Residents of New Haven get so few services from their municipal government that one has to wonder where does all the money go.

posted by: Tom on March 5, 2010  5:29pm

I believe the investment in school change will be the best thing to secure New Haven’s future.  It will reduce poverty, lower crime, make this a more attractive City in which to live, work, raise a family and do business, and educate our youngest generation to become the leaders of their future.  I don’t have children now, I don’t feel the resentment resonating through this comment board by “paying” for something that doesn’t benefit “ME”.  Sure, the tax increase will be uncomfortable, but I consider it an investment, and I expect to see, feel and live the returns manifold.

posted by: Claudia Herrera on March 5, 2010  9:19pm

I completely agreed with see the school system as a investment.

Better education and environment for our children..What a better way to feed the well being for the new generations and also as a much more better and effective preventive action to take to fight to reduce poverty and lower crime. I read the mayor’s letter too.
Still it’s a very high price to pay, I not say no taxes but 6% or 9% ? there are so many people out of job, the ones still have one have their hours shorten and have family to sustain a mortgages to pay what about a 3% ..not enough?

The anger really represent the worried of WHAT and HOW I going to pass through this already tide spot.

Funny none of the elders are making any headlines with this topic.. sorry have to say it.

posted by: DISGUSTED on March 6, 2010  11:21am

The citizens of New Haven must be the meanest of all Yankees. They want this and they want that and nothing is ever good enough but they never want to pay for any of it. It’s their right that someone else must pay for them. Yale, The State, The Feds, never mind who. Thank God Mayor DeStefano is honest and hasn’t cooked the books. We all live in a world class city and we should be pleased to pay for the privelege.

posted by: Peace Frog on March 6, 2010  1:33pm

Cities in the United States are in a very strange crisis right now.  The economic problems affecting the country have been particularly hard for cities, which tend to bear the brunt of foreclosures while still being required to provide a fully functioning service system for their constituents.  New Haven has faced trying times such as these before, namely in the early 1990’s, when city budgets and payrolls were slashed, leading to a drop in services that left our city mired in crime for a decade.

At this point, we are again on the bring of making difficult service cuts in order to stay solvent financially.  The problem is that we can’t invest large amounts of money now and promise to pay for it later, like the federal government has done to keep its essential services funded while cutting back on some other programs.  The City of New Haven has been cutting jobs and programs, sometimes with dire political consequences for those doing the cutting—remember the senior centers that were closed earlier this year?

The problem is that at this point, other than trying to streamline operations to make them more cost effective, which it seems Mayor Destefano has committed to, there really isn’t a lot of extra money available.  Much of our budget is mandated by law—most of the money we spend on education is mandated by state law, and many of the jobs in the City can’t save us money in the short term, which is the big, big problem here. Many other investments of City money are mandated by unfortunate circumstance—the airport needs a certain amount to stay afloat, without which the City becomes directly responsible for maintaining it, which costs a lot more money.  Many of the cuts proposed above would, at the end of the day, amount to very little in the way of actual savings in the near term.

In the long term, we’re in for other problems ahead.  There’s always the hope that the federal government will pass significant municipal aid bills, but that may not happen when needed.  Despite these difficulties, it would still be disastrous to cut services like police and fire, which are really the only places with significant amounts of money that can be saved.  The ideas above that call for greater community involvement in budgeting are good ones—by talking to local representatives, we can get involved in government and hope to come up with the best possible solutions to our problems.  It is also likely that some people will be voted out of office over tax increases—nonetheless, it is important to keep in mind the nature of the problems affecting the city, and to realize that tax increases for Americans at the local level, and probably at the state level as well, are bound to go up, regardless of who is in charge.  Mayor Destefano has put a great deal of effort into making smart cuts for the City of New Haven in the past few years, and has been quick to get up and explain what they are trying to do with the city budget.  At some point there has to be a consensus that no matter what, homeowners in a city like this are going to have to pay money to keep our city from going into a decline that will outlast the financially difficult times we now face.  An open, smart, involved system for building a budget is what we need to navigate this, and Mayor Destefano has begun this dialogue between his administration, the Board of Aldermen, and constituents who are interested in the budget process.  It’s possible that by deciding to work together we can find solutions that make these times easier, but only by not immediately resorting to panic and blame.  Building the City that we wish to see for our kids won’t be easy, but now more than ever is a time for us to get involved and try our best.

posted by: june bug on March 6, 2010  3:49pm

But of course…It’s a ponzi scheme.. and we’re all being played!!

posted by: smoke and mirrors on March 7, 2010  10:49am

I see that some people are talking about reval numbers, but please remember that the mill rate is based on spending.  When the new reval is done for 2011 the values will drop but if spending is not fixed the mill rate will just be higher.  The phase-in means nothing it is just a way to hide the true spending increase.  Check the tax exempt organizations and ask why the assessor changed properties to exempt.  Ask if all tax exempt submitted the proper form this past year to be exempt.  They must do this every 4 years and it was required in Nov. this year.  If they didn’t file they should lose the exemption.  Realize Anastasio watse transfer station is not a railroad company and tax them.  Review Gateway Terminal.  Johnny you are leaving so stop helping your friends at the expense of the property owners.  Ask John why he delayed a reval from 2005 to 2006, spending an extra $80,000.  It was only because he didn’t want a reval on the scene during his gov. campaign.  Through FOI ask budegt and finance why they get 100’s of invoices from the mayor’s office at the end of the fiscal year and hide the cost but taking all unencumbered funds from all departments in the final quater.  ...  Review haw many highly paid mayor’s staff are diorectly tied to working on his campaign.  Why did he hire an assessor that left and was not popoular with a $25,000+ increase over what he was making three years earlier when he left. ...  How many people are at the Housing Authority that used to be mayors staff.  The HA is like tenure now

posted by: Jonathan Hopkins on March 7, 2010  12:17pm

Tom,
When my brothers and I attended West Hills Magnet School in the late 80s and early 90s, it was considered the second best public school in the city after Worthington Hooker. There were kids in my classes that were assigned the same things, did the same work in class as I did, had the same teachers, sat in the same desks, yet there were still large discrepancies in performance between children in that school. To the children attending the school, the reason some kids did well and others didn’t wasn’t because some did not have the same experiences in school-we all did-it was because of what was happening outside of school in those children’s lives, what they went home to, what they experienced in their neighborhoods, etc. School reform may bring about some nice and very needed changes, but fundamentally schools are a product of neighborhoods. Magnet schools have attempted to get around this inherent quality in schools (their neighborhood ties) and this worked for a while, but has since just boiled down to moving students around the city in a private yellow busing system at great expense.
Reforming neighborhoods is much more difficult than schools, but it is a more worthwhile endeavor.

posted by: cedarhillresident on March 7, 2010  5:48pm

DISGUSTED - really?? City employee??

smoke and mirrors - YOU HIT IT RIGHT ON THE HEAD!!!!!!!

Easy Math - I agree, do property tax like income tax. In NY there is a program called Star, that is succeeding. Similar to your statement. It has improved home ownership, construction, grand lists because of new construction. Which made it cheaper, for yes even the higher valued home owner. But that is all done at a state level and it could not happen in this state. sadly.

Tom, I have to agree with Jonathan Hopkins on the school thing. We have Foxwood style schools now, but a fancier building has dick to do with a better education. My kids went to hooker my Uncle was the principle there, it was a shell of a school with few supplies, alot donated. The difference was simple, parental involvement! I don’t care how much doe you dumb into the school system, it will never get better till parents get involved again! Simple! Kids use to grad. for hillhouse all knowing calculus ect. no matter what the eco and social levels were… what changed, parents mentality on what a schools involvement in there children s lives should be and we allowed it. The better schools in the city, a decade ago West HIlls, Jepson, hooker, cold spring all had very little resources but they had parental involvement!! Amistad saw this and built it into part of there schools requirements and that school is now succeeding! Stop making our schools a cash cow and go back to the basics!!

KEEP CALLING YOUR ALDERMAN!! LET THEM KNOW WHY YOU VOTED FOR THEM!!!!! WE HAVE TILL MARCH 31st when the vote happens!!!!! The members of the Board of Finance are

Shah (Chair), Clark (Vice-Chair), Perez, Goldfield, Jackson-Brooks, Castro, Lemar, Morehead, Elicker, Bauer, O’Sullivan-Best

They are the first gate for this budget. They are the ones that each Dept has to present the budgets to and justify them. They are the ones that ok it and put it through to the BOA

for a list of emails and phone numbers go to
http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/aldermen/index.asp

posted by: cedarhillresident on March 7, 2010  7:04pm

oh and one more thing….

Dear mayor and crew…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYU-8IFcDPw

Love the people of New Haven!!!

posted by: James on March 8, 2010  2:29pm

@Disgusted
First, the issue is not about whether or not taxpayers are willing to pay. The issue is 1). whether or not we are getting value for the money we currently pay and 2). whether or not more money will add value or simply perpetuate bad governance at a cost to our families when we can least afford it.

For my part, I don’t see the taxes I pay being used efficiently or responsibly. I see a lot of waste and a lot of patronage. I want to see city hall take an honest look inward before I am asked to pay more. I recognize the need to raise revenue to run a city, but I demand value, honesty, and efficient use of that revenue raised.

More to the point, precisely what is is about New Haven that you feel is “world class?” Unless you meant to say “third world class,” I fail to see where we excel. Public schools, crime, infrastructure, open government, pollution, city services; on all of these marks we fall short. And yet with no track record of solving these problems and no concrete plan that extends beyond rhetoric,  they mayor asks us for more money.